Spacially manipulative amusement devices have long been known in the art which provide a plurality of individual components which define various preselected geometrical shapes, surface configurations, or the like. A familiar example of this may be seen in the device sold under the registered trademark RUBIK'S CUBE, a representative example of which is disclosed in Erno Rubic U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,116 and entitled "Spatialogical Toy". Yet another such example may be further seen depicted in Wayne Butler United Kingdom patent application Ser. No. GB2116049A entitled "Manipulative Puzzle". Still another example is the amusement device disclosed in David Butler U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,345, issued Nov. 24, 1987 entitled "Manipulative Amusement Device."
In the puzzle disclosed in the latter patent, upper and lower parallel plates are rotatable in parallel planes about a vertical axis. A plurality of cylinder assemblies is carried by the plates and disposed on the outer periphery such that their longitudinal axes intersect to define a regular polygon parallel to the plates. Means are provided for maintaining spatial position of the upper one-half of each cylinder assembly relative to the upper plate, and the lower one-half of each cylinder assembly relative to the lower plate as the plates are rotated in opposing directions. When the plates are rotated such that the upper and lower cylinder halves combine to define the cylinder assemblies, each such cylinder assembly is further rotatable about its longitudinal axis.
Each cylinder assembly is comprised of discrete sections, each preferably having an identifiable marking on its outer surface such as a different color or the like. Repeated rotation of the plates and cylinder assemblies permits selective formation of the cylinder assemblies from any combination of discrete cylinder sections. When the combinations of cylinder sections are randomized, such repeated rotations may result in forming a preselected pattern of such identifiable markings to solve a puzzle as, for example, in forming a plurality of cylinder assemblies each with a different uniform outer surface color.
In the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,345, each of the discrete cylinder sections carried a hemispherical nub at each end which registered with a mating hemispherical detent in the plate collars carrying the cylinder assemblies. The rotary registration of the upper and lower plates also used a "nub and detent" arrangement which required the plates to spread apart a sufficient amount to allow the nubs to ride up and out of the detents as the plates rotated with respect to each other. The "spread" plates returned to a planar surface face contact condition as the nubs on one plate rotated into the corresponding detents or recesses of the other plate. The "spreading" operation depended solely on the inherent elasticity of the material out of which the plates were constructed. Further, the "nub and detent" arrangement is expensive to manufacture. The molding of the projecting nubs and detent holes requires a complex mold that has a sliding mechanism to release from the "blind" holes for the radially spaced detents and the projecting nubs in order to separate the molded part from the mold.